If This Is Real
by Kaylindigo
Summary: ...then I must be crazy. I only had six more months until graduation. SIX. The world must hate me. Because it will not leave me alone, now. At least the countries of the world are entertaining... Maybe it doesn't hate me after all? Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OCs. Rewrite. Pairings later? Maybe.


_**I have no idea where this is going yet, but it just stuck with me. Yes, another little project to help me get over my writer's block.**_

_**I own nothing but my OCs and the plot**_

* * *

_**I grew up in rural America, the most beautiful part of the nation, if I may say so. Trees as far as the eye can see with cow fields splattered here and there.**_

_**Being a Senior in high school, I had a few close friends left, as is the way of the Senior. **_

_**Finding out who your true friends are and all of that nonsense. **_

_**Six more months and I'd be in college, majoring in psychology. **_

_**Of course, that's not what I'm looking forward to. I'm minoring in art and history. I can't help but choose those two. Helping your friends with thier history or government work (No, it's not cheating, it's collaborating) and giving out artistic suggestions everywhere you go can make those two certain subjects grow on you.**_

_**But in return, they help me with math, because my teacher is not the best. Don't get me wrong. He's an awesome person, just a bad teacher. But I do pretty good, according to my own mathematical standards.**_

_**School was pretty chill. **_

_**Now, I guess I should give you a heads-up about my home life.**_

_**My father died in a bank robbery three years ago. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess.**_

_**My mother changed when he died. She used to laugh and have fun. We'd have family movie nights and all of that great stuff. **_

_**Now she focuses on trying to raise my little sister, Melissa. She runs herself ragged. I do all I can to help her, and she's very appreciative. But, Melissa is not making our job easy at all. She's been a hateful little bugger. We think it's because she misses dad.**_

_**My older brother, Brayden, moved out to stay with his girlfriend in an apartment when he started college two years ago. He had been strong for all of us, so it was depressing to see him leave.**_

_**But now, most of those dark times are over and things have been looking up. Our household has been cheery for the most part, minus Melissa's little anger outbursts.**_

_**Sure, my life wasn't perfect, but I wouldn't want to change anything about it.**_

_**But, sometimes you don't really have a choice in the matter, do you? **_

_**I certainly didn't.**_

_**Oh, by the way, the name's Catherine. Catherine Hayes.**_

**oOoOoOoOo**

_"Caaaaaaaaaaaat! Carson is harrassing me again! I need an adult! You're eighteen, so you're close enough!" _

I was just minding my own business, listening to my iPod (I had to cover the ear bud with my hair or else they'd take my music) and hanging some fabulous artwork in the halls. So, while bouncing on my heels and singing to a Kelly Clarkson song, I caught a glimpse of something moving and heard the loud outburst. I lazily looked over to see Sammy, my best friend, charging towards me.

The small framed girl, sporting short black hair with red streaks, was sprinting down the art wing at a frightening pace. Her bright yellow jacket was threatening to fall off of her shoulders as she continued her marathon down the hall, with a chuckling blonde-haired boy catching up to her fast, brown eyes gleaming mischieviously.

"Sammy? What's up?", I asked in a chill tone as I put the last piece of tape on the back of a 'Starry Night' painting. Sammy tackled me and yanked me in front of her, using my body as a meat sheild for herself. I managed to flip my bothersome brown hair out of my face in time to witness Carson running full-speed towards us, arms wide open and a goofy grin on his face.

"Quick! To Mrs. Watkins!", I stumbled as I shoved Sammy into the room of said art teacher and shut the door. Carson stopped at the slender window on the door and put his forehead to the glass in defeat.

"You guys aren't any fun..."

"Maybe if you stopped trying to crush us with your love, we wouldn't be in this position", Sammy stuck her tongue out at the boy on the other side of the door. A bell rang throughout the school, signaling the start of class, and poor Carson's lateness.

"Well, see you guys later", Carson grinned and raised a hand in farewell as he shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled down the hallway to the band room, whistling away. Sammy sighed happily when she realized that she was safe, for now.

"What grade are you two in, again? Ninth?", a cheerful voice rang from behind us. I turned with a grin as our awesome teacher materialized behind us. She was in her late thirties with long brown hair and light brown eyes. Her clothes were paint-spattered and her hair was held up with two pencils.

Stereotypical art teacher? Yes. But a cool one, none-the-less.

"As a matter of fact, yes we are", Sammy replied with harmless sarcasm. Mrs. Watkins just laughed lightly before pushing her glasses back onto her nose.

"I believe it-", she giggled before moving on, "-now, my little lacky, have you finished putting up the magnificent art in the halls for the lesser students to embrace with their face?"

I grinned and saluted, "Yep! Do you have any other chores?"

Hey, anything to get me out of doing busy work. I'd finished my project and I certainly did not want to start on the next project before the others. Besides, her 'chores' involved us galavanting around the school, so they were fun.

Sammy poked her lip out in a pout and looked at her pleadingly, wanting to help.

Mrs. Watkins sighed and walked into the spare room, waltzing back into the class casually whilst pushing a shopping cart filled with cardboard and leftover paper. (What? You didn't expect us to actually _carry_ the trash out, did you? No, we use a shopping cart from the dollar store. It's donated, I swear)

"You two take this junk to the dumpsters. You know the drill. Don't sit in my cart. Don't stand in my cart. Don't chase any students while using my cart. And most importantly, don't break my cart. I love it-", she pushed the cart over to Sammy, "-but feel free to race each other down the hallway, just don't get caught, or I will deny giving you permission to drive my shopping cart"

With a salute, she left us to our own devices so she could help a student tape their entire hand. (This was advanced art, so we learned not to question the projects)

I grinned wickedly when I turned towards Sammy, who had an iron grip on the cart's handle, turning her knuckles white. I shoved the cart out of my way before darting out of the room. Sammy recovered and began pushing the cart close behind. There were a few students that stared at the strange sight that was us. A few even commented with _'Nice cart' _or _'Do any shopping lately?'_, only to have us answer with '_You wish you had a cart like this' _or '_Yes, don't you see the abundance of cardboard?'_

When we made it to the dumpsters, we played basketball with the leftover paper. Sammy was ahead by ten points, so I gave up and started to just throw the junk away.

The shop class next to us was alive with the sound of drills and saws. Students would occasionly look out of the giant, open door towards us with blank stares. _That is definitely a safety hazard_, I thought to myself as I glanced over at the dazed students. Must be pretty boring in there. They only make tables and bird houses. Half of the creations don't even make it out of the shop, but get broken into pieces after they get graded.

"Can I stay the night so you can help me with something I gotta do for Mr. Stephano?", Sammy spoke up as she grabbed the last bundle of newspaper and tossed it. I snapped out of my pointless thoughts and arched a curious eyebrow at her.

"This extra history class is killing me, I hate it. I thought you could help. It's a project on the Revolutionary War, but I'm kind of stuck-", she stopped for a moment, "-Cat? You still with me?"

I could tell that my facial expression was that of a dazed little kid. Mom had to go away on a business trip and was leaving in the morning. I needed something to pass the time while I had to babysit Melissa. This was perfect. I could feel my face light up.

"Yes! I'll totally help! How much do you have to do? Did you get the winter at Valley Forge down? How about the Boston Tea Party-", I knew I had started to trail off because Sammy's eyes had glazed over with boredom. Oh well.

"Wait! How about pirates?! Were there pirates?!", Sammy's eyes lit up and a grin spread on her face as we began the journey back to class.

"I'm pretty sure..."

"British pirates! Yes! Why is the rum gone?!"

We laughed incredibly loud as we quoted one of our favorite movies and raced back inside the school...or at least outside the door.

It was locked.

I mentally smacked my forehead. "We forgot to prop the door open..."

"Well, damn..."

oOoOoOo

After the mishap with the locked door (and some questioning from a teacher about the cart), we made it back to _Alpha Beta Iota. _

Yes, it was a terrible name for an art class, but Mrs. Watson proclaimed that it shall be called that. Since she came up with the class, she had the right to name it. She mentioned something about the greek symbols looking like 'art'? I have no idea, because I don't know greek. Let alone its symbols.

The rest of class flew by as time was spent playing Hangman and laughing at pathetic things that weren't even funny. Close to the end, we drew a blank and began to get bored, fast. The bell saved us, soon after.

Ending that dreadfully slow Friday.

And starting our two week winter vacation.

We stopped by the band room to talk to Carson and our other friend, Ashton. Sammy had developed a small crush on him. I could hardly blame her, he was pretty hot. With shaggy brown hair and blue eyes that seemed to glow. And he was pretty muscular for someone who barely works out. "We totally have to hang out over break!", Sammy declared to them once we entered the band room. Carson happily agreed and Ashton nodded lazily, before yawning and nearly falling over when he picked up his bag. The poor guy barely got any sleep for some reason.

"We should have a snowball war when we get that big snow storm next week!", Carson added with a wide grin. "That sounds like a plan-", I grinned as a pun popped into my head, "-yea, I could go for another _cold_ war". I snorted lightly while I was booed. "All terrible puns aside, we should totally do that! I haven't actually enjoyed snow since forever!", Sammy smiled happily.

"It's a date then!", Carson slung his arm around her shoulder, much to her shock. "If you call getting pummeled in the soul by snowballs courtesy of those two-", she glared at me and Ashton, "-a date, then I guess it is!", Sammy laughed loudly. Ashton and I sent a sly glance towards each other. "I'm sorry you two suck at snowball fights", I stuck my tongue out at the two before heading for the door. "So, it's gonna start snowing Monday, right? You best be prepared. You all will face my _flurry_", before I could be booed again, I grabbed Sammy's arm and pushed open the doors to be greeted by the freezing winter wind. We sprinted to the parking lot, eager to escape winter's icy touch.

Finally, we reached my means of transportation. I don't say vehicle because it can barely be considered that anymore. The blue paint was dulled and slightly peeling while the windows seemed to be permanently smeared by little Melissa hands. Sammy just stared at the abomination.

"I c-completely forgot th-that you had a hand-me-down Camaro from the eighties", she surpressed a snicker as she shivered and opened the passenger door, making it creak in agony. I just sighed as I opened my door, threw my bag into the back and settled into the driver's seat.

"You could always walk. Five miles isn't that far-", I threw a small glare her way before she lept into the passenger seat, fastened the belt and forced a grin. "-that's what I thought", I pulled out my iPod and plugged it up to a cord that connected to the radio.

"At least there's one good thing about this hunk of junk!"

"Seriously. Five miles. I can see my house from here if I squint. Really hard."

oOoOoOo

After going through my entire 'Awesome Song' playlist, we pulled into the driveway. I uncerimoniously let out a little squeak when I saw my brother's truck. I snatched up my bag and bolted to the door, leaving Sammy alone in the car.

I thought for a moment, then ran back to grab my keys. "What? Don't trust me?", she put her hand over her heart, pretending to be wounded. I stared blankly at her before laughing obnoxiously. "It's a crap car, but I can't risk it". I ran back to the house and yanked the door open.

"Brayden! Arianna!", I heard voices from the kitchen so I dropped my bag and ran straight there. Mom was talking to my gossipy (and quite rude) aunt, Clara, while fixing dinner. Clara shushed me before continuing on with a story about the farmer down the street.

"Where's Brayden and Arianna?", I whispered loudly to mom. She looked at me with tired brown eyes and tilted her head upstairs, then went back to listening to Clara. I walked over to inspect dinner. Vegetable soup. It smelled lovely. I added a few spices to the mix and cleaned up a bit. What? It wasn't like Brayden and Arianna were going to leave in a few seconds. Sammy chose that moment to walk in. My mom glanced at her with a soft smile.

"So, what's for dinner, Mommy?"

"Food", she grinned at Sammy before shooing me away from the stove. Clara let out a disgusted grunt, "That's not how you enter someone's home. Children these days..."

Sammy stole a brief glance in my direction, I shrugged and went to the fridge to grab a soda. "I'm sorry, auntie dearest", Sammy grinned and followed me to the fridge. Clara looked angered at her response, but she got over it long enough to reprimand me. In my own home.

"Catherine. You know that it's rude to drink soda without offering some to your guests", I turned with a can in my hand, sending her a blank stare. Then, with a flick of my wrist, the can let out that pleasant 'tss'. She glared at me as I took a long sip and sighed happily. Sammy was trying her best to keep a straight face, so she dove into the fridge and grabbed her own soda.

"That's exactly when I would ground you from your laptop..."

"I can live without a laptop", a sly grin was on my face now. She never faltered.

"Then I'd refuse to let your friends visit"

"Sammy is my sister", before she could come up with another punishment that she would administer, I simply walked upstairs to my room, Sammy close behind. I could hear Clara mumbling something about 'disrespect' and mom telling her to lighten up a bit (Mostly because she did not live there). We turned at the top of the stairs and headed to my door. I reached for the doorknob and grasped it, only to have it yanked open.

"Surprise!", came two gleeful voices before I was pelted by ice-cold water. I grabbed Sammy and pulled her in front of me, making her squeak from surprise. "Sucks to suck, doesn't it?"

oOoOoOo

In the aftermath of the attack, both of us were drenched in freezing water while Brayden and Arianna grinned, propping themselves up on their water bazookas. Not water guns, oh no. _Bazookas_.

Brayden had the same mop of brown hair that he had two years ago and his brown eyes still gleamed with childish happiness, even though he was almost twenty-two. His fashion sense hadn't changed either. Jeans, polo shirt and Converse. Yep, same old Brayden.

Arianna had grown out her brown hair until it reached her lower back. She had always wore tank tops and skinny jeans. She still did. Even now, in the freezing season of winter. She was just as fun-loving and immature as Brayden. The two were a match made in hell.

After our two parties had a stare-down, I cracked a smile and walked over to hug my long-lost brother.

"I missed you, bro", an almost non-existant tear ran down my cheek. Arianna sniffled lightly, being the sappy woman she was.

"I missed you, too, Cat"

"I missed you, too!", Sammy cried out and lunged at us, enveloping the both of us. She really did miss him. She had had the biggest crush on him since elementary school, but got over it when she met Ashton and all of his drum major glory in the ninth grade.

"How's my little sister been?", Arianna grinned at me when the little hug-fest was over. I let out a long sigh and walked over to my bed, dramatically falling on it face-first.

"She's been better", I heard Sammy answer for me.

"Clara comes over way too much and it drives me nuts. She acts like _she's_ my mom. I swear I want to move out or something, just to get away from her. Also, I'm starting college this fall and I need a job", I said, or thought I did. The pillow muffled most of my little monologue.

"Darling, you gotta either speak up or sit up", Arianna sounded a little saddened. I sat up and groaned as I placed my head in my hands. I'm so glad that they put up with my occasional rants.

"I can't ask mom to pay for college. I know I won't be able to get by on just grants and scholarships. Oh, and I will _not_ get a loan. I need a place closer to the college, too. That's what I'm most concerned about", I looked up at the three that were hovering over me.

"I told you already! There's a small house right down the street from the college we're looking at! It's perfect! We just need to get two other people to stay with us and we'll be set! Carson and Ashton probably wouldn't mind!", Sammy jumped on the bed beside me and threw an arm around my shoulder. Brayden and Arianna looked at each other understandingly.

"You know, you still have six months to worry about that. Just focus on your work and sign up for as many scholarships as you can, you'll be fine", Brayden smiled warmly at me. Arianna nodded in aggreement. "And if you need help, you always have us. Don't be too stressed, you're only eighteen", she grinned before moving closer to Brayden.

"And don't worry about Clara. She mentioned earlier that she was looking for a place in new York City. Far away from here", Brayden added with a smirk

Okay, it's settled. I have the best siblings ever, even if one isn't really related to me. I couldn't help but smile.

"So, I brought my equipment...who's up for some paintball?", Arianna winked and headed for the door. Brayden eyed her as she walked down the stairs. Sammy and I just snickered as his face contorted into a cross between admiration and fear.

"You all shall be painted black and blue when I'm done with you", I grinned wickedly before standing and grabbing Sammy and Brayden's wrists, pulling them behind me.

oOoOoOo

An hour and about two thousand paint splatterings later, we all came back into the house, giggling and snorting like we had just heard the funniest joke ever. Clara had long-since left and mom was sitting in her chair, reading a book I had gotten her for her birthday. She looked up and tried to hold in her giggles when she saw us.

"This splatter looks like a bunny!", I pointed to a green blob that had taken up residence on my right thigh.

"This red one is a firetruck!", Brayden pointed to the red splatter on his forearm that, in no way, resembled a firetruck.

"No it's not, sweetie, you just want it to be", Arianna patted his arm lightly before hugging it, getting paint on her cheek.

"Why didn't you wait to play until I got home!", we all froze. Melissa was home, and she obviously did not have a good day at school. She dropped her bag and stormed past me and Brayden towards mom.

"I think we upset the Queen", Brayden whispered so only the three of us could hear.

"Off with our heads?", I snorted lightly before we all broke out into a fit of giggles again.

"Honey, I've told you. You'd just cry when you got hit. And they don't have enough gear for you, too", mom glanced sadly at her. Melissa looked at us, then back at mom. "Whatever", Melissa then proceeded to pout and disappear into her room.

oOoOoOo

After taking off the paintball gear and putting it away in Brayden's truck, we settled down in the livingroom and played a few videogames for a couple of hours. Family bonding.

It was around eleven when Sammy decided that we should work on her project. "The later, the better!", she laughed as she dragged out her history binder. Brayden and Arianna had retired to Brayden's old room and my mom was most likely asleep. Melissa was probably asleep, too. We headed back upstairs so we would not wake them up.

Armed with fluffy pajama pants, warm blankets and hot chocolate, we sat on the floor in my room and started on her project.

"So...let's see what you have here-", I flipped through the loose-leaf paper, scanning the pages intently, "-this looks great so far. But, why do you have the burning of our capital in here? That was during the War of 1812"

"I knew I had something wrong, thanks!", she grinned before diving back into her hot chocolate. I turned away and sorted the papers in order of importance. I ended up tossing two of the papers in the trash, much to Sammy's despair.

"You should mention the Olive Branch Petition. It's pretty important-", I scribbled the name in the margin of one of her papers, "-you should also mention the French and Prussian involvement and their generals."

"Okie Dokie Loki!"

"And the wooden spikes the revolutionaries put in their harbors to sink enemy ships"

"Done and done!"

Something began to tell me that she was just going to agree with everything I said. She almost never payed complete attention whenever I helped her out with work. So, I had to confirm my suspicions.

"We absolutely cannot leave out the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

"No, we can't", I turned and gave her a blank look after she answered. She was laying down and tossing a paper ball into the air. If it was possible, steam would definitely be shooting out of my ears.

"Sammy-", her attention snapped to me as the paper ball fell and bounced off of her face, "-I'm not doing this whole thing by myself".

"I never said you had to-", she looked upset now,"-but, you know how bad I am in history...I can't remember anything important, so why try?", her expression was just short of depressed. I immediately felt terrible.

"I'll make you note cards and drill the info into your thick head if I have to", I sighed and leaned against my bed, scribbling info on blank paper. Then, there was a knock at the door. With a groan, I fell over and crawled to the door, opening it with slight annoyance. "What", I pretty much spat at the late visitor. I looked up to see that it was Arianna and Brayden. Brayden looked down with an odd expression as I stood up.

"Working late again, huh?", he grinned as he looked in to see Sammy wave at him. He waved back, then turned his attention to me. "Anyway, we came to give you a late Christmas present, since we might not see you in the morning. We've gotta catch an early plane to Canada for a friend's wedding", he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little navy blue felt pouch. "It was dad's", he took my hand and pressed it into my palm.

A painful smile appeared on my face as I looked at the both of them. "You used to always play with it. He couldn't keep it away from you. You probably don't remember, though", Brayden smiled and stepped back, wrapping his arms around Arianna's waist, causing her to grin and press against him. I arched an eyebrow and looked at the pouch, then untied the little string and tipped the pouch upside-down. Something small, round and metal fell out. With closer inspection, I noticed that it was a brilliant, deep blue amulet with a silver chain.

I saw a few little flecks of metallic green and brown, so I leaned in for a closer look. It began to look like a small globe with little green, brown and white spots in the places of the countries and continents. The colors were beautiful and everything was almost too detailed to be on such a small thing. It was about as big as a marble, maybe a little bigger. But, I thought it was beautiful. I always had.

I could feel a smile spread on my face. I walked over and hugged the both of them "I was hoping you would remember", Brayden chuckled and returned the hug. I backed away to gaze at the deep blue of the amulet. "I can't believe such a tiny thing used to keep me occupied for hours. It seems so much smaller now", I quickly slipped the chain over my head and examined the amulet again.

"Hold on just a sec", I darted past Sammy, knocking her over on accident and earning a few little curses, then dove into my giant treasure chest (named that because I keep my art supplies and precious pictures in it). I grabbed two bags with snowmen on them and quickly returned to my previous spot, shoving the bags in their face with a big grin plastered on my own.

"It'll never be as good as your gift, but Merry Christmas!", they took the gifts with a sparkle in their eyes and flung the tissue paper into the hallway. Arianna let out a joyful squeal and held her new Elvis Presley CD close, cuddling it like a puppy. Brayden hid his emotions quite well, but I still saw his lips twitch into a smile and the joy in his eyes. "Disney's Greatest Hits-", he flipped it over, saw the song list and his smile widened "-just what I wanted, thanks little sis", he ruffled my hair and put the CD back in the bag. After a few more 'thank you's' from both sides, Brayden and Arianna went back to their bedroom and I stepped over to my bed to sit down, looking at the amulet once more with a child-like happiness. Sammy was looking at it with a snarky grin.

"Nerd-", I threw a pillow at her face and she happily dodged it, "-you mad, bro?"

"You're just jealous that you don't have a mini globe"

"Yes, totally", her words dripped with sarcasm, I then threw a blanket at her. "Go to sleep, we're done for the night".

"We sure are, mom texted during your little gift exchange. She's picking me up pretty early so we can go see uncle Ernest and my cousins before they go back to England. They were supposed to leave Sunday", she didn't look too happy. Neither of us did. Brayden and Arianna were leaving, and now Sammy was. My mom was leaving at, like, three in the morning for her business trip. I was going to be stuck with a sour Melissa all weekend. By myself. Joy.

"Tell them to send you some tea leaves and a top hat", a yawned before covering up and hugging my rainbow bear pillowpet. "How about I tell them that aliens love raiding planes. It'll be a fabulous sendoff", Sammy laughed lightly before taking the blanket, along with a few other pillows, and heading down the stairs to the livingroom, where she'd claim the couch for the night.

_"Haha! Told you aliens were real, dude!"_

I raised my head up to look at the doorway. "Did you say something?", Sammy didn't answer, I guess she was already downstairs. I began to wonder why nobody had woken up when we were making such a noise earlier. I decided not to question it. My family slept like rocks. I shrugged my shoulders, then, being the slightly paranoid girl that I am, covered my head with the blankets and made sure no part of my body was out in the open. "There, safe and sound", I chirped to myself as I snuggled up to my pillow. My mind began to get blurry as sleep took over, but not before I heard a little voice enter the back of my head.

_"Buone notte~"_

oOoOoOo

I awoke the next morning in a rather undignified manner. My phone's alarm seemed louder than normal. Which is weird, because it's Saturday and I turned my alarm off. I placed a pillow on top of where my phone was supposed to be on my nightstand, hoping to shut it up. But, it kept getting louder.

And louder.

"Wake up! I'm hungry! Fix me pancakes with chocolate chips and maple syrup and whipped cream and-", well, Melissa was awake, not only that, but she slid my ringing phone under my covers, just to bother me. That meant one thing. Everyone had left already. I was alone.

"Would you kindly leave the premises of my room so I can actually _wake up_!", I shot up out of my little blanket cave, causing a pillow avalanche to fall to the floor, along with my phone. My hair was messed up and I was _not_ entertained by her actions in the least. She grabbed my face with both of her hands. "I'm staying with Jessica this weekend. Mommy said I could. Jessica's mom is picking me up at ten. So fix me food so I can leave happy".

It was a blessing from the gods.

I leapt out of bed, grabbed my phone and sprinted down the stairs (Which I do not recommend). I headed directly for the kitchen, grabbing the frozen chocolate chip pancakes from the freezer and tossing them into the toaster. I yanked open the fridge and grabbed the whipped cream. I picked up a packet of hot chocolate and poured it into a mug, filling it with hot water from the faucet. The pancakes popped up and I snatched them, threw them down on a plate, sprayed a ton of whipped cream and maple syrup on them, then set them on the table along with the hot chocolate.

Melissa walked in and her eyes lit up. "Yay!", she ran to the table and dug in, scattering syrup and whipped cream _all over _the mohogany. 'She eats like a rabid dog', I thought with disgust as I waltzed over to the fridge to get a bottle of water.

At least twenty minutes of dead silence went by until the doorbell rang. "Jessica's here!", Melissa hopped off of the chair and ran to the door, screaming with delight when her little friend greeted her. I trudged over to the door and waved to her mother, she was such a kind lady. I hope they don't drive her _too_ insane.

"Thanks for letting her stay the weekend. She'll have a blast, I'm sure", Jessica's mother grinned happily before watching the two twelve-year-olds race to the car. It was nice of her not to comment on my bed-head, fuzzy pants and baggy shirt. I knew I looked like a slob, so it was nice not to have someone mention it.

"No, thank you", I grinned gleefully before saying good bye and shutting the door.

Alone.

I was finally. Alone!

I twirled on the spot and raced back to my bed, only to find that the sheets were cold. But, I didn't care. I had the place all to myself for the weekend. It was going to be wonderful. I turned on my radio and plugged my iPod up to it, so I could fall asleep to some wonderful Mozart. I giggled before curling up in a ball and drifting back to sleep.

oOoOoOo

It wasn't long until I was stirred awake by a few quieted voices. I moved around and tried to go back to sleep. All of the voices stopped. I smiled to myself as I buried my face in my pillow yet again, trying to remember the lovely dream I was having about meeting the Queen of England and having morning tea on a boat in the middle of a giant lake with fancy butlers.

Wait a second...

My music was off.

I groaned and reached out, smacking the table while trying to find the musical device. My hand found it and I pressed play, but it wasn't Mozart, it started playing The Beatles. Oh well, I curled up and let out a content sigh.

Wait another second.

Voices?

My eyes shot open and I froze. _Oh God. Murderers. Maybe if I stay still, they won't see me_- I mentally facepalm at the thought. I've already moved, they know I'm here. A bunch of scenarios ran through my head. I heard at least eight different voices. All of them men with weird accents. I was dead. I was so dead. But, hell, if I was going to die, I was going to die fighting.

"Dudes, do you think she's awake?"

"Quiet, you git! She might hear us and have some sort of heart attack!"

_Okay, on the count of three..._

"Ve~ She's adorable~"

_One..._

"I've seen cuter, da!"

_Two..._

"Yo, dudes! I think I saw her move again!"

_SHIT! THREE!_

I sprung up, much to the surprise of my unwelcomed visitors, and charged straight at...

The door.

I'm pretty sure my scream of terror stunned them, because they didn't chase after me. I slid down the railing and nearly stuck the landing. I tripped over the rug and face-planted. I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, so I struggled to get up and ran for the door, holding my, most likey, bruised nose. Just as I was about to grab the doorknob, an incredibly strong hand grabbed my forearm and pulled me back.

"No!", tears were in my eyes as I tried to scratch and kick my attacker. The fear was getting to me. I turned to try and punch the man holding me, but I froze in my own fear when I looked into his eyes. His deep blue eyes seemed to look straight through my soul from behind his glasses. His sandy blonde hair was everywhere and there was this one hair that refused to stay down. He wore a bomber jacket that looked like it was from the 40's. I saw the other men come up from behind him and stare at me like I was crazy. I glanced back at the guy holding my arm and started trembling.

"It's okay, dudette. The hero isn't gonna hurt you!", he smiled warmly before letting my arm go. I looked at him, then at the others. I let a small smile creep onto my face before turning for the door and grabbing at the knob for dear life.

"Wait!", he jerked me back and spun me around, causing our heads to collide with an almighty thump.

"Bloody hell! Why'd you do that, America!", I heard a voice that was distinctly British.

"Doctor...Who?", I then proceeded to black out.

oOoOoOo


End file.
